When people talk about Flash prototyping they talk about interactive prototypes. Which Flash does extremely well.

But I use Flash to build screenflows - click-by-click simulations of the user experience. In theory, these could be done in any app, like Visio or Powerpoint, but the advantage of Flash is that it's a great drawing tool with a timeline, it lets you create a library of re-usable objects, and you can also include interactivity.

Screenflows require very little expertise in Flash because you just need to know the standard drawing tools and the timeline.

I've created hundreds of different wireframes and prototypes over the years, from static to fully functional, using just about every tool ever made: Director, Illustrator, Visio, Powerpoint, Fireworks, Freehand, HTML, and of course paper...and Flash screenflows easily deliver the best results with the least effort. They're super quick and easy to create, they're easy to share, easy to user test, but probably most important of all they make it easy to iterate lots of different ideas very quickly.

I've recently been doing workshops on this technique (http://skyrize.com) and the people who are now using it are reporting awesome results.

Cheers.
Philip Fierlinger
skyrize.com

take a look at Axure for ID / Prototype
I started playing with Axure on my personal site click on the annotations and the colors at the bottom www.StashMedia.com

iRise tries to do too much, such as requirements etc, it hooks into req pro, if y...

FaNtAsTiCo!

These are amazing - thank you!

Ha! Actually, I'm interested in seeing more of YOUR lovely sharpie drawings.

Folks, if you haven't seen them already, check out Ty's beautiful sketchnotes from UX Week: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36742530@N00/sets/72157606809922046/

The workshop was very useful! I would love to have access to the slides that Sarah and Julia showed us during the workshop. Can you possibly send them to me, or publish them somewhere? (janniche.oyen at avenir.no)

The slides for this workshop are at:

http://uxweek.com/slides/gesturesworkshop_uxweek.pdf

Thanks Leah!

Loved your session and presentation.

So... when will we be seeing more of your lovely sharpie drawings?

Hi Jennifer!
I got some great pics of your hands in the "water mirror" at the Exploratorium! ^^

I'll post some soon on Flickr.

Best!
Glenna

Hiya. I've put together some extra notes on each of the models -- what they're best suited for and how to use them. Take a look here and let me know if you have any questions about any of it.

http://uxweek.com/slides/ap_good_design_faster_with_conceptual_models.pdf

Thanks,
Leah

Hi, all:

It was great working with you during the session, and I'd love to get your feedback on the workshop. You can post it here, or send me email to kate [at] adaptivepath [dot] com.

Also, the slides and handouts are posted here:

Slides: http://uxweek.com/slides/uxweek_2008-stickynoteninja_postdeck.pdf

Activity handouts:
http://uxweek.com/slides/uxweek_2008-stickynoteninja_handouts.pdf

Cheers,

-Kate

Hey thanks Dan! I'll keep watching.

Great sketches, thanks for sharing!

help! i have no notes on the conceptual models, and can't remember how to apply the 2x2 or Grid concepts to exploration...

This was awesome. Thanks Dan for a great experience.

Slides available at: http://uxweek.com/slides/making_thinking_tangible_uxweek2008.pdf

Thanks for the agile-usability reference on yahoo groups. I have requested membership and hope to discuss agile and agile methods further.

Hi Perry,

My shameful admission is that before I started using this process, I didn't really DO a formal brainstorming step all that often. So, for me, they templates and the sketchboard are a good way to force myself to explore lots of possibilities before diving too deeply into one.

That said, if you have some good established brainstorming practices, keep using them! This is definitely not a replacement. Just another tool in the toolkit. If you do start using them, I'd love to hear how it works for you. (That goes for all of you!) Please keep in touch.

Leah

veen.com/uxweek08.pdf

Alexa and team did a good job running the workshop, and clearly explaining how to use Flash for prototyping. I know feel confident to go away and play with flash and try and prototype and create movies. I can see as a non programmer it will take me quite a while to learn it all esp the coding side.

However, I do feel that using Flash for prototyping is like driving your car to go one block. You can do it, however it may be faster to walk or catch the bus. Not the right tool for the job. If you are essentially creating videos/scenes/conditions just to link from one page to another, it isn't fit for purpose.

I'd recommend a more simple tool e.g. Axure, or alternatively get someone to code it

Slides of the book is on flickr
http://flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia/sets/72157603511616271/

Resources, including the spreadsheet, can be found here:
http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mental-models/content/resources/